AVS. Arkitektúr verktækni skipulag - 01.09.2004, Qupperneq 27

Appraisal of planning propo-
sals for new housing areas -
APP / Appraisal for the plann-
ing of Blikastaðaland
Dr. Bjarni Reynarsson, Geographer and Planner
Public participation
It has been said, both as a joke
and in earnest, that the planning of
built-up areas is far too important to
leave it all to specialists. This may
be true, both because the general
public has become more and more
interested in the planning of the
built environment and because the
science of planning and physical
planning is a multi-discipline science
based on extensive knowledge,
including the daily life of people in
housing areas of cities. Society is
becoming more and more com-
plex and the same applies to the
demands of people for housing and
location. In essence, people them-
selves are best suited to realize their
own needs and attitudes towards
what constitutes good housing
environment. All local authorities in
lceland have adopted the objective
to collaborate with the inhabitants
as much as possible. In spite of
this, the public in the capital area
has constantly been passionately
objecting to planning proposals.
This could have been avoided if the
public had been sufficiently consult-
ed during the preparation stage of
the proposals. This article describes
methodology that should decrease
the likelihood of such confrontation
and reduce the possibility of plan-
ning mistakes.
Research into hous-
ing and location pref-
erences of the inha-
bitants of Reykjavík,
2003
At a conference called the planning
of housing areas”, held by the city
of Reykjavík on Nov. 28th 2003,
the findings of extensive research,
directed by the writer of this article,
were introduced. This showed for
example the opinion of some 900
inhabitants of Reykjavík what con-
stitutes desirable local environment
in the city, including what type of
housing and area of the city people
would like to live in. Three types of
methods were used to ascertain the
attitudes of people; questionaires,
photos and discussion in in-depth
groups. This research is in many
ways a pioneering work as there is
not much research into how and
where people would like to live in
urban areas of this country. This
applies especially to the use of pho-
tos and in-depth groups to obtain
the attitudes of people to these
matters.
The general attitude of the group
that worked on the preparation of
this research and the considerable
number of people who attended the
conference was that this extensive
research should be continued and
used in the planning of urban areas
in lceland. This was indeed one of
the goals of this research and in the
report of the author of this article
“Housing- and location preferences
of the people of Reykjavík,” alterna-
tive courses of action in following up
the research were pointed out both
in connection with the appraisal of
new planning proposals and also
in the evaluation of housing prefer-
ences in both new and old districts.
(See the homepage of the city of
Reykjavík - reports and surveys.)
Appraisal of planning
proposals - APP
As has been stated above, one of
the main goals by the research into
the housing and location prefer-
ences of the inhabitants of Reykjavík
was to form the basis for applying
the findings to evaluating propos-
als for the planning of new districts
in the city. The author of this article
worked during last winter on devel-
oping further the methodology used
in the above research (See working
model). The main emphasis of this
work is on securing the attitudes
of previously chosen study groups
about planning proposals during the
preliminary stages. Several methods
have been used to choose people
for such groups, such as by age,
income, neighbours, possible inhab-
itants of the area, like target groups
for certain types of housing and so
on. Preferred number of people in
each group is 8 - 12 people. Each
meeting takes about one to two
hours, divided into two parts.
A) Individual part: The participants
answer a questionaire, prepared
in collaboration with the planning
authority where emphasis is put
on obtaining information about
existing housing, general hous-
ing- and location preferences and
preferred planning of the area
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